I haven’t read the terms and conditions of the site at issue, but suspect that it does not prohibit the use of the data by law enforcement (perhaps unlike Uber in the Greyball case). Does it invade your privacy for the government to look at data that you have made available to a large groups of “others”? Who can the suspect sue for violating the terms and conditions? And what would be his damages?

Wonder if the US Congress will follow suit, or develop its own solution.

From a Governance perspective, how can a government control this? Are Google and Facebook something other than private businesses? Utilities? Media? What rules apply and who makes (and enforces) them? Maybe you can require all information to be searchable, but then how do you limit and group the number of responses?

From a Compliance perspective, how will Google and Facebook be able to comply with different controls imposed by different governments, some of which don’t have the same press protections as the US has (assuming Google and Facebook are “the press”). Do we need a squad of fact-checkers? And who would govern them? Oops. There’s a link to Governance.

From an Information perspective, we’re all drowning from the fire hose of information overload. We want and need filters. But we need trustworthy and reputable filters, don’t we? And a space without filters?

Certainly a bank accused of similar conduct with respect to accounts, credit cards, mortgage loans, and auto insurance wouldn’t do anything so dastardly. I mean, gosh, isn’t a bank a fiduciary? Did they have a policy forbidding this behavior? Are they just cheaters? What else have they done?

I suspect they now know what a pinata feels like.

Who’s responsible for the culture at the bank that allowed all this to happen? How much will this cost the shareholders?

How can you respond to fake news? Normal controls don’t work, as it is “challenging” to shut down social media channels. But the government has an interest in protecting the reputation and value of its currency.

I guess I’d file this under (a) Governance (How can you control (i) rumors and/or (ii) social media?) and (b) Information (How do you deal with false information? What’s the (negative) value of false information?). Other suggestions?

Yahoo no longer exists, with surviving pieces owned by Verizon and Alibaba Group Holding.

How to file this? Was there an obligation way back (in 2014) to notify people when the Russians had hacked their accounts? What happens to your company if there is a breach of your customers’ security? And you fail to mention it to anyone? A fine? Drawing and quartering?

By Christian Liipfert

These are comments on selected news articles, looking at the intersection and interplay of information, governance, and compliance. I started this in August 2013 for a class I was teaching at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business on an introduction to information governance and information management.

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